In Passing, We Achieve Immortality
by Leviticus Wilkes
Summary: Time, it is said, heals all wounds. Nora knows that this isn't true. In Memorial of Monty Oum.


Time, it is said, heals all wounds. Nora knows that this isn't true. Time will push the wounds back, cover them with fresh skin, seal them away. The scars remain though, forever beneath the skin, aching in the dead of night, always at the back of one's mind. The wounded are everywhere in Beacon, and many have names for these wounds. For Ruby, it's Summer. For Blake, it's Adam. For Jaune, it's Pyrrha.

The name of Nora's wound is Ren.

Ren's in the back of her mind every day, waiting to come forward and cause her pain. A flash of green here, a flicker of magenta aura there, the slightest bit of snark, it all brings pain to Nora now. Ren was the only one she could think of being like that. Now Ren is everywhere around her.

Ruby tries to help her grieve at times. Tries to connect. Blake lets her be: she chose to scar herself, and did it gladly, by leaving Adam. Jaune understands her. Jaune holds her at night, when it's too much and she's crying. Nora doesn't feel any shame when she crying, not any more. Jaune cries to, sometimes with her, sometimes alone, and she holds him.

They both know that they aren't the ones that they truly want to hold, but they make due.

The world, at times, feels like it's cold, even on the brightest of days. The numbness seeps in and takes a hold of her chest. There are days that Nora can barely stand. There are days that she can barely survive. There are days...

There are always days, Nora realizes one day. A day will follow the next, and a day will come after that. It's the natural order of things. A day passes, and a day arrives. The sun will always rise again.

It's little comfort for the heartbroken girl.

At times, Nora can almost feel Ren by her side. The slightest edge of his aura ghosts against hers, tingling at her senses. Nora has long since learned not to bother searching for the source: it has been, and always was, in her head. Ren is never there when she has a moment of weakness and looks anyway.

The world feels hollow for the survivor. Each day, Nora rises from bed, goes through the motions of life like an automaton. Alone, her thoughts dance around his voice, his laugh, his hand against hers...

She never said that she loved him. Its' this thought that breaks her, cracks her heart wide open, and rips her life from her body. She could never tell Ren how she felt. Three words, in but a few seconds, would have been enough.

Nora cries, without, and finally with Jaune. Jaune was her opposite: day and night, reserved and outgoing, man and woman, the one who didn't know of love and the one who could not let it be known.

Jaune, in this regard, is a comfort.

The Grimm aren't a comfort: they're a release. The sorrow of a life without him becomes disregard for life, the fear of being without Ren becomes fury against what took him. The Grimm fall like flies, against the remnants of team JNPR of Beacon. Nora is a demon on the battlefield, destroying the Grimm without concern. Jaune is an angel, protecting, defending, saving the lives that the Grimm try to take.

Night and Day, Nora and Jaune.

The battles wear on. The days pass. Nora finds pain wherever she looks. Nothing seems to change. The world, it seems, is apathetic to death.

Nora doesn't know if she can care anymore. Life without Ren seems so hollow. She had never imagined a world where she would walk forward without him, never thought such a terrible world could become her reality. Yet she walks through it, fighting, and crying, and trying to be strong.

And one day, she's with Jaune, and realizes that she needs to cry, and asks if Jaune would let her cry. And Jaune lets her cry into his shoulder, and she spends her day like that, crying with Jaune.

The dynamic changes.

Nora attacks the Grimm ferociously, attacks her studies ferociously, works each and every day to grow stronger. In an instant the ennui shatters, and Nora is racing towards the top of the classes, clawing her way up, dragging Jaune behind her.

The world becomes a whirlwind of advancement, achievement. Nora becomes the top Huntress-in-Training at Beacon academy, surpassing Yang and even Ruby, her power raising to unheard of levels for her age-group.

Nora finds herself at the peak, standing, staring out at the hundreds of students below her, looking inwards at...

...the cold emptiness that remains. It seems that achievement, self-improvement, cannot silence grief. Nora feels herself plummeting again, and doesn't know when she'll hit bottom.

She is caught.

Jaune had followed her path, stopping just short of becoming the top Huntsman at Beacon. He's not as strong, but somewhat wiser than Nora. His pain remains fresh, like Nora's. His mind has dulled to his common man's struggle, like Nora's.

Like Nora, he gave up when he saw that achieving his ambition would mean nothing. He just gave up sooner.

Jaune and Nora return to normalcy, for a time. Team RWBY tries to help, if only a little bit. The days roll on though, and Nora and Jaune remain teammates, alone in the crowds of Beacon. Together and apart in grief.

It's been six months.

Nora nearly chokes when she realizes how long Ren had been gone. Six long months, half a year, all without her closest, dearest friend. She's alive, while he is not.

The irony of such a fact surprises Nora. Ren was always the calm one, the collected one. He had a plan, an economy of action and thought that led him out of far more dangerous situations than he deserves to be caught in. Nora blamed herself for many of those situations now.

Ren had been capable, strong, and thoughtful. He could discern a way out of a problem that no one else could. He knew what he was, and where he was going. He could have made it in life.

Nora wondered, for a moment, every moment, what Ren would do at that moment. It raised many questions, and all of them painful. Nora wasn't sure she could answer them.

Jaune seems lonely.

That's the first thing that comes to Nora's mind when she looks at Jaune, nowadays. Jaune works hard, studies hard, fights hard, but at the same time, he doesn't seem to connect. No one is close to Jaune anymore. Nora wonders, for a moment where she does not think about Ren, if Jaune thinks that she is lonely.

It's later that night that Nora makes dinner and talks with Jaune, about normal things. They talk about their studies, about the Grimm. They recall fond memories of exploring Vale by Bullhorn, flying across the vast forests and rolling plains. Nora discusses her home life. Jaune talks about his family's history.

Nora asks Jaune to hold her. Jaune does so. Nora doesn't cry that night.

The antithesis of death is life.

The revelation of Jaune hits Nora like a freight train at the same time the news of Goodwitch's pregnancy hits Beacon. The entire school is in hysterics, trying to guess the father, asking for the baby's gender, even suggesting names to Glynda. The Dust professor merely raises her eyebrows and throws anyone who tries to enquire as to the father into detention. Eventually, Nora plucks up the courage to come forward, and bring her question to Glynda.

"Did you love him?"

"When he was alive, yes."

The news overwhelms Nora, overwhelms Jaune when she relates it, and shocks RWBY when Nora brings it to their attention. The questions to the identity of the baby's father die out though: Team RWBY keep the secret well, and Jaune and Nora would never disrespect the dead like that.

It's as Jaune watches Glynda's stomach swell with each passing month, he relates his revelation to Nora. Nora wonders if he is right.

Life needs love to flourish though.

Nora makes Jaune dinner more often now, almost as often as Jaune makes her dinner. It's different for them, to cook. Cooking had always been an activity that Ren had taken care of.

Nora pokes Jaune every now and again. Sometimes she pokes him on the nose, sometimes she pokes him on the ear, or on the chest, or even on the hand. Jaune doesn't mind: he pokes right back. Nowadays, they don't hold each other to cry, but to hold each other. To comfort one another.

They share stories of family life, of their world beyond Beacon, and now, of Ren and Pyrrha. Of the laughs they shared, and the tears they shed, and the fights they won and the one fight they lost. It brings them closer to the memories of Pyrrha and Ren.

Jaune mentions, one day, that a year has almost passed. Nora acknowledges the passage of time, and watches the sunset that evening with Jaune. Jaune asks her if the sun will rise again. Nora says yes. Jaune asks if she could stop the moon, to spend the night together, everlasting. Nora says yes.

The next morning, Ruby quietly and politely congratulates the two. Nora thanks her, and Jaune denies it, until Nora chides him, and he admits it. Ruby smiles and bids them to have a nice day.

For to live is to die, but for life, love must be.

"Momma, where are we going?"

"Shush Parry, we're almost there."

The party of three, a strong and pregnant mother, a tall and sturdy father, and a short and unsure son, made their way up the hill, towards the lone tree that stood their. As the three sat down in the shade, Parry pointed at the small stone that marked the tree. "Is this where Aunt Pyrrha and Uncle Ren are?"

Parry's father nodded. "Yes. They're here. And up there." The father pointed up into the leaves. "This tree grew after they came here, and it's what they made."

Parry scratched his chin in thought. "So this tree's my cousin?"

Parry's mother laughed. "Yeah Parry, it is your cousin. Aren't you going to say hi?"

Parry wrapped his arms around the tree. "Hi cousin tree!" Parry's parents laughed.

To live is to die, but to truly be alive, one must search for a meaning. That meaning may be to serve others, to protect, to love, to learn, or to guide. For Nora and Jaune, once upon a time, their meanings were Ren and Pyrrha. For a time though, their lives had no meaning. Now?

They had each other, and their children. Death is where a life becomes meaningful. Life is what fills the void of death. Scars will not heal until they can never be felt again, but if one can find meaning, life is always worth the pain.


End file.
